Paper Stars
by Wolfblade88
Summary: Percy has been lonely all his life, can a jar of paper stars and a surprise visitor change that?


**Paper Stars**

"Go away Jackson, no one even likes you!" laughed Luke as he blocked the way to my locker.

"Come on Luke, can't you lay off today." I groaned, wishing i could go home now.

"Fine, i need to leave anyway before people assume we're friends, later loser!" he laughed before forcefully bumping shoulders with me.

"Right…" I gather my things and sulk out the door to my mom's awaiting car.

"How was school today, Percy?" she asked me, with a bright smile on her face.

"Same, they didn't hide my books today though." I sighed and starred out the window. The rest of the drive was uneventful until we finally arrived to our apartment building.

"Hey Perce, I'm going out with Paul tonight, if you're hungry, there are some hotdogs in the fridge." Said my mother as we walked through the door.

"Yeah, thanks mom." I murmured in response.

"Percy-" I looked at her. "Things will get better, I promise." she said in a sincere way and gave me a hug.

"Thanks mom," I hugged back. "Now go have fun on your date, ok." I smile back at her.

"I will." she replies before kissing me on the cheek and walking back out the door.

I stare at the door a few moments longer before walking back to my room. I open the door and make straight for the closet in front of me. Reaching in, I grab some scissors, paper, and a not-so empty jar.

"Here we go again, I mumble as I fold the paper properly, after a few failed attempts, i finally folded it right, I grabbed the scissors and began to cut. A few seconds later, I was left with a paper star, looking perfect and symmetrical.

I picked up the scraps and left all the items on the floor before walking to the kitchen for dinner. As I opened the fridge, there was a knock on the door. "Sigh…If it's that door-to-door salesman again, I swear to god…" I shut the fridge and approach the door. "No thank you sir, we're not buying-Hello?" I paused, in front of me was a girl with curly blond hair, drawn up with a pony tail, stormy grey eyes, and a look of what seemed to be annoyance and embarrassment. "Can I help you?" I asked.

"Hi, I was wondering, if you had any ice I could barrow." she said, looking straight at me.

"I'm sorry, did you say ice?" I asked, not expecting that question.

"Um, yeah. We're the new family in room 23d and the freezer isn't hooked up so, any ice I could barrow?" she asked again, looking a little embarrassed.

"I was gonna say, you don't look familiar, but sure, come on in." I gestured, inviting her inside.

"Um, sure." she said as she hesitantly entered my apartment.

"It's gonna be a few minutes though," I said leading her into the kitchen. "My mom likes her ice fresh so she has it made by the block."

"That's ok, it's just me tonight anyway." she said, taking a seat at the table.

"Parent's left you alone too?" I asked, chipping away at the ice.

"Not really, it was either stay home or go watch The Expendables 3." she sighed.

"Not much of a movie fan I take it?" i asked, still chipping away.

"I am, just not a hard core action fan."

"I see, well i don't wan't to sound too forward, but since you're alone and I have nothing better to do, would you like to watch a movie here?" I asked, my face turning a deep scarlet.

"Um…, sure" she responded with a deep blush on her face as well.

"Alright, by the way, my name's Percy and your ice is done." I said, handing her a bag of chipped ice.

"Thanks, and my name is Annebeth." she smiled before taking the ice. "My fridge is still broken, so mind if i leave it in the freezer and grab it before I leave?"

"Sure," I stuffed the ice in the freezer and we made our way to the living room. "So, as my guest, you can pick what we're watching." I grinned, opening up our movie cabinet.

"You watch a lot of movies don't you?" said Annebeth, in awe of my families extensive movie collection.

"Not as much as you think, but your choice?"

She hesitated for a moment before pulling my copy of Finding Nemo from the shelf.

"Good choice." I grinned as I put the disk in the DVD player and sat on the couch. Throughout the movie, we learned a lot of things about each other. She learned that I was a big fan of fish since I could name what type of fish every character of the movie was. I learned she was great at math when she calculated how many fish it took to make an arrow to point Dori in the direction of the Australian Current, and it turns out we're both dyslexic when we couldn't read the address on the diving mask.

"Hey Percy, wheres your bathroom?" asked Annebeth as the credits began to roll.

"Just down the hall." I yawn as I remove the DVD from the player.

"Hey Percy? I don't mean to be rude, but I walked past your room and saw this jar full of paper stars." She said, holding up the jar I forgot to put away. "What's it for?" she asked.

"Wel…" I start, blushing a bit. "It's a long story."

"Judging from the size of the jar, I calculate that you have about 1,000 stars." said Annebeth, looking closely at the jar.

"Tell you what, lets count the stars, if there's 1,000 exactly, then I'll tell you.

She smiled at me and dumped the stars onto the ground and began picking them back up, one at a time. After what seemed like forever, she looked at me and said "I was right, there was exactly 1,000 stars in the jar. Now tell me, why do you have 1,000 paper stars in a jar?" she grinned.

When I was little, I was very lonely as a kid. My ADHD combined with my dyslexia made it hard to make friends, everyone called me weird, or stupid. My family wasn't exactly the richest so we couldn't afford to get me medicated either. One night, I had a dream, I herd a voice say that if I made 1,000 paper stars, then my greatest wish would come true. My childhood didn't exactly support the idea that wishes came true, but I liked making paper stars. So I made them, Whenever I felt sad, or lonely I made a star. For some reason it cheered me up. I kept them in a jar to remind me that hard times are over. I now realize that I even got my wish."

"Really?" Asked Annebeth. "What did you wish for then?"

"I wished for a friend."


End file.
